Tamagochii ("lovable egg"), a Japanese fad, is a very low-res
"bird" image on an egg-shaped key ring bauble. The image grows
from a chick to an adult in about 10 days, provided that you push
buttons to feed it, groom it, play with it, sooth it, and clean up
its droppings. The bird also makes sounds. Neglect it and
it will die prematurely. "You stop thinking of it as just
a picture." Bandai has sold 350K of these $16 virtual pets,
and street prices have risen to over $320. Buyers include kids,
secretaries, and middle-aged men. [Reuters. SJM, 23Jan97, 1C.]

Oddballz is a game where you can mutate, hatch, train,
and play with seven fantasy pets. More interesting than Dogz
or Catz, but less cute. . [Andrew
, comp.ai.games, 14Dec96.]

There will be an "autonomous robotics football tournament"
at the ECAL 4th European Conf. on Artificial Life, 28Jul97
in Brighton. This competition will be one-on-one, with a single
yellow tennis ball. "A FOOTBALL TEAM will be a single small
wheeled miniature mobile robot," with a $2,600 KHEPERA robot
recommended (from ).
Robots are expected to recognize each other, the ball,
and the goals, and to move the ball with purpose. $1K prize.
. [Paula Femenias
, genetic-programming, 13Jan97.
Bill Park.]

(I'm hesitant to mention this or any conference, as readers
are likely to submit several more announcements. There seems
to be far more interest in publishing conference announcements
than in receiving them. If you really do want them -- from
all AI-related areas -- let me know; we might find a moderator
for a conference digest or web page. Otherwise, I'll leave
conferences to the single-topic discussion lists.)